VILLARI PASQUALE Italian historian and statesman, born at Naples Oct. 3, 1827, studied with Luigi la Vista under Francesco de Sanctis. Implicated in the riots of May 15, 1848, at Naples, against the Bourbon government, he took refuge in Florence where he published his Storia di Giro lamo Savonarola e de' suoi tempi (2 vols. 1859-61). It was fol lowed by a work of even greater critical value, Niccolo Machia velli e i suoi tempi (1877-82). Both these works have been through many editions, the latest in 1927. Meanwhile Villari had been professor of history at Pisa, and now obtained the chair of philosophy of history at the Institute of Studii Superiori in Flo rence. He was also a member of the council of education (1862), and in 1869 was made under-secretary of state for education. In 1884 he was nominated senator, and in 1891-92 minister of educa tion. His collected essays on Florentine history were published as I primi due secoli della storia di Firenze and in 1901 his Le Invasioni barbariche in Italia, a popular account of the events following the dissolution of the Roman empire. All these works
have been translated into English by his wife. Villari died at Florence on Dec. 5, 1917. Villari's historical, political and social writings exercised a deep influence on his generation, and most of the Italian historians of to-day have been his pupils.
His other works include : Saggi Critici (1868) ; Arte, Storia, e Filosofia (Florence, 1884) ; Scritti varii (Bologna, 2894) ; an other volume of Saggi Critici (Bologna, 1896) ; Discussioni cri ticlie e discorsi (Bologna, 1905), containing his speeches as presi dent of the Dante Alighieri Society; Lettere Meridionali contain ing the first exposure of conditions in south Italy (Turin, 1885), Scritti sulla question sociale in Italia (Florence, 1902) ; L'Italia da Carlo Magno alla Morte di Arrigo VII. (Milan, 1910, Eng. trs. 1910) and Storia, politica e istruzione (Milan, 1914).
See F. Baldasseroni, Pasquale Villari (Florence, 1907).